The Jack of Spades

by Kevin J. Lin

You and Skinny Dakota, a friend of yours known world-wide for his pool playing skills and card trickery, are playing poker one night.

In a somewhat unusual turn of events, you find yourself actually winning. Toward the end of the end of the game, Skinny picks up one of his folded cards, the Jack of Spades, "I'll bet you double or nothing on all your winnings tonight that I can cut a hole in this card and climb through it."

"Uh huh," you reply, "And will this card be squirting cider in my ear afterwards?"

He smiled, "You know I sometimes make crazy bets. And sometimes those bets backfire on me. But I'm always serious about my betting. So I'm wagering I can cut a hole in this card you see me holding, the Jack of Spades, and climb through said hole."

"You're going to pass your entire body, not just part of it, through a hole cut in that card?"

"That's right."

"Without tearing it?"

"Without tearing it."

Now Skinny Dakota isn't called skinny for nothing. And you've heard tell that he once worked as an acrobat in the circus. But there's no way a human being could climb through a hole in a playing card.